Little things can mean a lot, as we all know.
So when we hear about the city running deficits of hundreds of millions of dollars and facing billions of dollars in liabilities, we know things have gone badly wrong but why?
The politicians would have us believe it’s the fault of the bad economy but we’ve learned better day after day as we have seen them grapple the problems caused by their years of failed leadership and mismanagement of city affairs.
We see them panic over the DWP withholding $73 million and send out red alerts of imminent financial catastrophe, proclaim city government will shut down 40 percent of the time, gridlock over $6 million in power rate hikes as if we weren’t talking about a city government with nearly $7 billion at its disposal annually and a utility with $4 billion in revenue and $1 billion in cash on hand.
We watch as they talk about 4,000 layoffs but only carry out 33 while transferring hundreds of others to special funds and proprietary departments, some of them getting raises of up to 50 percent instead of pink slips and unemployment checks.
We get the picture clear enough: Things are bad and getting worse.
Let me fill in one small detail that will help bring this picture into focus and help you understand why our parks and libraries are closing and the basic services we all rely on are being slashed and they are imposing fees and rate hikes, planning tax increases and selling assets.
It’s the case of Environmental Affairs Department General Manager Detrich Brown Allen, Council File Number 10-0404.
Unfortunately for Ms. Allen, her department was eliminated as a cost-cutting measure and with it, her $152,299 a year job.
But all is not lost. Ms. Allen has accepted a demotion to environmental affairs officer within the Department of Transportation, a position that pays $122,607. There is upside since she no longer is working at the pleasure of the mayor and now has Civil Service protections and like all other city employees, her pension someday will be based on the highest salary she earned as a city worker.
If you have listened even occasionally to City Council meetings during the last 10 months, you know that for all the occasional lip service paid to the impact of what is happening on LA’s four million people and its hundreds of thousands of businesses, the real work that has been done involved protecting the wages, benefits and jobs of city workers.
That should come as no surprise since our elected officials regard city government as a jobs program, not a services provider.
And so it is with Ms. Allen.
Why should she lose anything just because she was demoted, her responsibilities diminished, her department eliminated?
“In order that Ms. Allen not be harmed by the elimination of the General Manager’s position, it is recommended that her salary be V-rated to maintain her current salary level,” City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana wrote March 10.
“The EERC and the City Council have previously approved V-rates for other employees whose positions were eliminated. The EERC approved a V-rate for Ms. Allen on March 2, 2010.
“Because the class of Environmental Affairs Officer is represented by SEIU 721,
the V-rate must be included in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The V-rate has
already been discussed with the union and they have agreed to include it in the MOU.”
I added the emphasis to make sure you notice that the mayor and City Council leaders not only approved this gift to Ms. Allen but they have “previously approved” the same deal for other city workers whose jobs were eliminated.
And the union that is so strenuously fighting to save the jobs and salaries of the city’s lowest-paid workers agrees to these kinds of deals for six-figure employees even though they are taking money out of the pockets of the people they represent — unless, of course, a way is found as usual to sock it to the public to pay the bills.
Last Wednesday, the Council Personnel Committee approved Ms. Allen’s $30,000 a year gift and sent it to the full Council.
But don’t let this worry you, it won’t add to the $222 million general fund deficit this year, or the $484 million deficit year, or the nearly $800 million deficit the year after, or the $1 billion deficit the year after.
“The cost to the Department of Transportation will be fully funded by the Mobile Source Fund and there will be no fiscal impact to the General Fund,” Santana noted.
I hope this helps fill in some detail in the picture you hold in your mind of what’s happening at City Hall as they juggle the books and raid special funds for special purposes and protect the same old special interests at your expense.